Convertible floor polisher arrangement



April 6, 1954 D. c. GERBER 2,673,996

CONVERTIBLE FLOOR POLISHER ARRANGEMENT Filed Jan. 6, 1950 3 She ets-Sheet l INVENTOR. Dale 6. Gerber v ATTORNEY.

April 6, 1954 D. c. GERBER 2,673,996 CONVERTIBLE FLOOR POLISHER ARRANGEMENT Filed Jan. 6, 1950 s Sheets-Sheet 2 mvzzvion,

Dale 6. Gerber BY/ ATTORNEY.

April 6, 1954 D. c. GERBER 2,673,996

CONVERTIBLE FLooR POLISHER ARRANGEMENT Filed Jan. 6, 1950 s Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. Ba 16 C. Gerber Patented Apr. 6, I 954 CONVERTIBLE FLOOR POLISHER ARRANGEMENT Dale 0. Gerber, North Canton, Ohio, assignor to The Hoover Company, North Canton, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application January 6, 1950, Serial No. 137,188

7 Claims. 1

This invention relates to more particularly to a combined floor polisher, waxer and scrubber.

For good polishing action, after the wax has been applied, it is desirable to rotate the polishing brush or brushes at high peripheral speeds, whereas for wax spreading or applying operations a slower brush speed is necessary because at high peripheral speeds the centrifugal force involved throws the wax against floor boards and against other objects where it is not desired.

some in that case.

Some users of floor polishers prefer to use the polisher solely for the polishing operations while others use it for performing both polishing and waxing. and still others may wish to use it for scrubbing floors also.

For that reason it is not desirable to provide for different brush speeds by a complex variable speed gearing since that would increase the cost to users not desiring to use the polisher for all three operations.

According to the present invention the peripheral speed of the brushes can be readily changed from high to low or vice versa by a mere replacement of the brushes to be used. A person may purchase the polisher proper and only those brushes having the proper peripheral speed for the use desired.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a front plan view of a floor polisher of known construction with certain parts broken away to show how this invention is applied thereto and showing two oppositely rotating high peripheral speed brushes applied;

Figure 2 is a front plan view of the polisher of Fig. 1 showing how a single slow peripheral speed brush is applied; and

Figure 3 is a front plan view of the polisher of Fig. 1 showing how three intermediate peripheral speed brushes may be applied thereto.

Referring to the drawings in Fig. 1, the letter A represents the two high peripheral speed brushes, in Fig. 2 the letter B represents the single slow peripheral speed brush and in Fig. 3 the letter C represents two end intermediate peripheral speed brushes and the letter D a central intermediate peripheral speed brush.

The floor polisher to which this invention is a plied is disclosed and claimed in an applicafloor polishers and presently described.

2 tion by Erhard O. Kohl, Serial No. 91,980, filed May 7, 1949, and will not be described in detail in this application except for the parts necessary to an understanding of the present invention.

The polisher comprises a main frame generally indicated by the reference numeral l0 having a vertical axis bearing H at each end thereof each rotatably carrying a spindle l2 which are rotated in opposite directions by worm gearing it from a motor 14 housed within the appearance hood #5. Centrally between the spindles l2 and on a line joining their axes is a downwardly extending bearing support 16 which may be made integral with the main frame Ill or it may be made detachable therefrom as desired. Insofar as the olisher itself is concerned the provision of the bearing support I 6 is the sole modification of the polish-er over the polisher disclosed in the application for U. S. Letters Patent above referred to.

The lower end of each spindle i2 is provided with a snap-on detachable connection for selectively receiving the various brushes to be Each snap-on connection comprises a cylindrical portion I! on the bottom end of the spindle l2, a driving pin l8 and a spring pressed holding detent l9.

Each brush A of Fig. 1 comprises a wooden back 20 to which bristles 2| are suitably secured. Secured to the top of the brush back 20 is the flange 25 of a sleeve having a cylindrical bore 22 for receiving the cylindrical portion I1 of the spindle I2. Extending outwardly from the bore 22 of the sleeves are a pair of cut-out notches 23 to receive the ends of the driving pins I8. A notch 24 is cut in the bore 22 to receive the holding detent l9.

The brush B of Fig. 2 comprises a brush back 30 of suitable moldable material to which the bristles 3| are attached. The brush back 30 is provided with an upwardly extending hub 32 and with an upwardly extending peripheral flange 33 having internal gear teeth :34 molded therein for a purpose to be presently described. The hub 32 is bored to receive the outer race 35 by a ball bearing generally indicated by the reference numeral 38. The inner race 3,? of the ball bearing is suitably bored to freely slide onto a cylindrical portion 38 of the bearing support l6. In order to properly position the inner race 37 on the cylindrical portion 38 of the bearing support it the bearing support is provided vwith a positioning pin 39 having its ends positioned in grooves 49 cut in the upper-edge 0f th i n r race 31 and with a spring pressed ball detent 4| for engaging beneath the lower edge of the inner race 31.

The teeth in the upwardly extending flange 33 cooperate with gear teeth 42 on a pinion gear 43 which may be made of any suitable moldable material. The top of the pinion gear 43 is bored to receive the cylindrical portion ll of one of the spindles l2 and its upper edge is cut away at 44 to receive the ends of one of the driving pins IS. A notch 45 is cut in the bore of the pinion gear 43 for receiving one of the positioning detents 19.

The central brush D of Fig. 3 is in all respects the same as the brush B of Fig. 2 except that it is of smaller diameter and the gear teeth 34 are replaced by a peripheral friction driving member 5| which may be made of rubber or other suitable material. The top of brush D carries a bearing the same as bearing 36 of Fig. 2 which is adapted to slide over the bearing support iii.

The brushes C of Fig. 3 are similar to the brushes A of Fig. 1 except that the brush backs 60 are provided with peripheral friction driving members 6| to cooperate with the peripheral friction driving member SI of the brush B. The hubs of the brushes C have sleeves similar to the brushes A to slide over the cylindrical portions ll of the spindles l2 and are held in position by the driving pins l8 and the holding detents It.

It is within the purview of this invention that the bearing stud It be replaced by a bearing support of the socket type in which case the brush B of Fig. 2 and the brush D of Fig. 3 would be provided with a bearing in which the outer race would have a snap-on connection with the bearing support socket. However the projecting stud type is preferable since it is cheaper to manufacture and will thus reduce the cost of the cleaner as such.

Operation As shown in Fig. 1 the brushes A are rotating in opposite directions at a high speed for polishing purposes. a floor where a very low speed brush is required the two brushes A are removed, the pinion gear 43 snapped onto one of the spindles l2 and the brush B snapped onto the bearing support l8. Due to the reducing gearing the brush B will rotate slowly, and will not throw wax or dirty water against the base board or other objects.

If an intermediate peripheral brush speed is desired the modification of Fig. 3 may be used.

In that case the brushes A of Fig. 1 are removed,

the brush D of Fig. 3 applied to the bearing support l6 and the brushes C applied to the spindles l2. The arrangement is such that the friction driving member Bl will contact the friction driving member 5! on the brush D and rotate it in a direction opposite to the direction of rotation of the two brushes C.

It is to be noted that the peripheral speed of the brush D is the same as that of the brushes C regardless of their respective diameters because the brush C drives the brush D by peripheral contact therewith. It is also to be noted from the arrangement of Fig. 3 any peripheral brush speed desired may be obtained by varying the diameters of the brushes so long as the diameters of brushes C are the same. If the diameters of the brushes C are increased the diameter of the brush D should be decreased and vice versa.

- From the foregoing it can be seen that this When it is desired to wax or scrub I 4 invention provides a simple arrangement in which an ordinary floor polisher primarily for the purpose of high speed operation for polishing floors can be readily converted to slow brush speeds by the mere replacement of brushes.

While I have shown but two modifications of my invention it is to be understood that these modifications are to be taken as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense. I do not wish to be limited to the particular structure shown and described but wish to include all equivalent variations thereof except as limited by the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. In a convertible floor polisher, a frame, shaft means extending downwardly from said frame adjacent the periphery thereof, means for rotating said shaft at a comparatively high speed, first detent means on said shaft, gear means detachably secured to said shaft means by said first detent means, means on said shaft cooperating with means on said gear means for drivingly connecting them, a bearing support extending downwardly from said frame centrally thereof, second detent means on said bearing support, a bearing detachably secured to said bearing support by said second detent means and a large diameter vertical axis brush rotatably carried by said bearing, said gear means being in driving engagement with said brush adjacent the periphery thereof so as to drive the same at a comparatively slow speed.

2. In a convertible floor polisher, a frame, a vertical axis shaft extending downwardly from said frame adjacent the periphery thereof, means for rotating said shaft at a comparatively high speed, first detent means on said shaft, a small diameter gear detachably secured to said shaft by said first detent means, means on said shaft cooperating with means on said gear means for drivingly connecting them, a bearing support extending downwardly from said frame centrally thereof, second detent means on said bearing support, a bearing detachably secured to said bearing support by said second detent means and a large diameter vertical axis brush rotatably mounted on said bearing, said gear being in driving engagement with said brush adjacent its periphery whereby said brush is driven at a comparatively slow peripheral speed.

3. In a convertible floor polisher according to claim 2 in which said bearing is a roller bearing having its inner race detachably connected to said bearing support and its outer race secured to said large diameter brush centrally thereof.

4. A floor polisher comprising, a main supporting frame, a motor having a rotatably driven shaft supported by said frame, a pair of hori- 'zontally spaced vertical axis spindles rotatably mounted on said frame adjacent to its periphery and extending downwardly therefrom, gearing means drivingly connecting said vertical axis spindles to the rotatably driven shaft of said motor, a fixed supporting stud mounted on the underside of said frame centrally of said vertical axis spindles, a plurality of sets of selectively interchangeable attachments for said polisher for selective detachable connection to said vertical axis spindles and to said supporting stud, one of said sets comprising two brushes having means for detachably and drivingly connecting them to the lower ends of said vertical axis spindles and another of said sets comprising rotatable means having means thereon for detachable and driving connection to the lower end of one of said vertical axis spindles and a brush rotatably and detachably connected to said supporting stud and drivingly connected to said rotatable means.

5. A floor polisher comprising, a main supporting frame, a motor having a rotatably driven shaft supported by said frame, a pair of horizontally spaced vertical axis spindles rotatably mounted on said frame adjacent to its periphery and extending downwardly therefrom, gearing means drivingly connecting said vertical axis spindles to the rotatably driven shaft of said motor, a fixed supporting stud mounted on the underside of said frame centrally of said vertical axis spindles, a detent and driving connection on the lower end of each of said vertical axis spindles, a detent connection on the lower end of said supporting stud, a plurality of sets of selectively interchangeable attachments for polisher for selective detachable connection to said vertical axis spindles and to said supporting stud, one set comprising two rotatable brushes for detachable connection to said vertical. axis spindles and each having a detent and driving connection for coaction with the detent and driving connection of said spindles, a second set comprising a gear for detachable connection to one of said vertical axis spindles and having a detent and driving connection for coaction with the detent and driving connection of said one spindle and a large diameter brush geared to said gear and having a detachable detent connection for coaction with the detent connection or said supporting stud and being rotatably mounted on said stud and a third set comprising two brushes each having a detent and driving connection for coaction with the detent and driving connection of said spindles and a third brush geared to one of the other brushes and having a detent connection for coaction with the detent connection of said supporting stud and being rotatably mounted thereon.

6. A floor polisher comprising, a main supporting frame, a motor having a rotatably driven shaft supported by said frame, a pair of horizontally spaced vertical axis spindles rotatably mounted on said frame adjacent to its periphery and extending downwardly therefrom, gearing means drivingly connecting said vertical axis spindles to the rotatably driven shaft of said motor, a fixed supporting stud mounted on the underside of said frame centrally of said vertical axis spindles, a pair of small diameter brushes, detent and driving means on the lower end of each of said vertical axis spindles, second detent means on the lower end of said fixed supporting stud, means on each of said small diameter brushes cooperating with the detent and driving means of said vertical axis spindles for detachably drivingly connecting said small diameter brushes to said vertical axis spindles, a small gear, means on said small gear cooperating with the detent and driving means of one of said vertical axis spindles for detachably and drivingly connecting said gear to said one vertical axis spindle, a third brush, means on said third brush cooperating with said second detent means for detachably and rotatably mounting said third brush on said fixed supporting stud and gear means on said third brush drivingly engaging said small gear when said gear is mounted on said vertical axis spindle and said third brush is mounted on said fixed supporting stud, the arrangement being such that said small diameter brushes are selectively mountable on said vertical axis spindles and said gear and third brush are selectively mountable on one of said vertical axis spindles and said fixed supporting stud respectively.

7. A fioor polisher comprising, a main supporting frame, a motor having a rotary shaft supported by frame, a pair of horizontally spaced vertical axis spindles rotatably mounted on said frame adjacent to its periphery and extending downwardly therefrom, gearing means drivingly connecting said rotatably mounted spindles to the rotary shaft of said motor, a fixed supporting stud mounted on the underside of said frame centrally of said rotatably mounted spindles, releasable detent means on the lower ends of each of said spindles and on said fixed supporting stud, a pair of high speed brushes selectively attachable to said rotatably mounted spindles, a small gear selectively attachable to one of said rotatably mounted spindles and a slow speed brush selectively and rotatably attachable to said fixed supporting stud, said slow speed brush having gear means on its periphery engaging with said small gear when said slow speed brush is attached to said fixed supporting stud, means on said high speed brushes and on said gear cooperating with said detent means for selectively, detachably and drivingly connecting them to said rotatably mounted spindles and means on said slow speed brush coacting with said detent means for detachably and rotatably mounting said slow speed brush on said fixed supporting stud.

References Cited in the file of this patent 

